Archive for July, 2008
Solving Problems The Mozilla Way
Thursday, July 31st, 2008
You simply file a bug.
Bug 448604 (whistler) – Can’t get out of Whistler
Good Or Bad Luck?
Wednesday, July 30th, 2008
I can’t make up my mind, did I luck out (I suppose, I’m not underneath the slide) or is my luck bad considering I traveled over this highway less than 48 hours prior?
Update –
New Beck
Friday, July 25th, 2008
Beck’s Modern Guilt – available on Amazon’s mp3 store – it’s a rare occurance – tripping over an album where every track totally kicks ass. This is one of the few and far between. Go buy it.
A Day In The Life Of A Home PV System
Friday, July 25th, 2008
Also, Florida just passed a renewal of their renewable energy incentive rebate program (up to $20,000.00 off the cost of the system @ 4.00 per watt), and a requirement that all power companies serving Florida must provide net-metering agreements to residential customers by 2009.
Related – Going Solar
I For One Welcome Our New World Order Overlord
Friday, July 25th, 2008
And it came to pass, in the eighth year of the reign of the evil Bush the Younger (The Ignorant), when the whole land from the Arabian desert to the shores of the Great Lakes had been laid barren, that a Child appeared in the wilderness. …
Macs Gaining As Hacker Targets
Wednesday, July 23rd, 2008
The piece of Mac malware identified in June, named “OSX/Hovdy-A Trojan”, is the nastier of the two. It is capable of infiltrating a Mac, stealing passwords and opening the user’s firewall to enable future exploits. If the modus operandi sounds familiar, that ‘s because a lot of the same virus gangs who perfected their exploits on Windows machines are now tweaking them for Macs, Mr Cluley adds.
Scarier still, the same tech-novice PC owners who failed to fortify their computers properly, allowing them to become spam relays and zombie DDOS attackers, are now making the switch to Macs. “I think the Mac user base will end up becoming polluted by some of the same people who have been infected time and time again in the Windows environment,” Mr Cluley says. “It’s mainly the same people who buy a computer primarily to download porn and visit file-sharing sites.”
QOTD
Tuesday, July 22nd, 2008
“The internet really does make it easy to show what idiots these people are.”
XBOX News
Monday, July 14th, 2008
Ok, this is the most enjoyable news I’ve read since I picked up my 360. A total overhaul of the interface (the old one was experiencing some pretty major growing pains) and 10,000 new movies and shows via NetFlix. Awesome. The kicker – “The content Marketplace will be overhauled and revamped to ensure it’s easier to navigate and much more scalable for the huge amount of content it’s got.” That was really needed. Browsing films has lacked a few key features, better previews, search, and a nicer cover art interface. Hopefully they’ve addressed all of this. About th only downer at this point is NetFlix is currently SD only, but that apparently will be changing over time.
How much you wanna bet MS buys NetFlix at some point?
Update - They also added Sci-Fi and NBC Universal’s content line up starting now. Sweet.
Overall, I have to say, I am so incredibly happy with the 360 as an all-in-one living room media hub and game console. It has to be the best hardware product Microsoft has ever released.
Update Again – OMG it gets better –
Play from hard drive. Copy your games from the game disc and play directly from the hard drive. Not only will the drive not spin, but load times are quicker, as well. Of course, you will still need the disc in the tray to prove you own the game.
Access Xbox LIVE Marketplace on the Web. Browse and purchase Marketplace content whenever you want from Xbox.com and it downloads automatically to your console. Purchase that new map, television episode, the latest Xbox LIVE Arcade game or set up a movie to watch when you get home from work.
New display support. Because you asked for it, we are adding 16X10 over VGA or HDMI, and support for 1440×900 or 1680×1050.
The web ordering is just fantastic. I’ve been whining on the xbox 360 boards for a while now that they need to add a web interface for browsing and ordering content that will auto download regardless of where you are. Tivo had this through Amazon, it kicked ass and I’ve missed it since I got rid of my Tivo and went Hi Def. I guess MS has been listening.
There are even more announcements coming down the road.
IndyMac Goes Down
Friday, July 11th, 2008
Mortgage lender IndyMac Bancorp Inc (IMB.N) was taken over by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp on Friday, the second largest financial institution to close in U.S. history.
The FDIC said the estimated cost of the California-based bank’s failure to its insurance fund is between $4 billion and $8 billion. The regulator said it will operate IndyMac to maximize the value of the firm for future sale.
Damn! This however is a “drop in the bucket” compared to freddie and fannie, which are next on the list.
Going Solar
Friday, July 11th, 2008
I’ve been living in a gated community now for almost 7 years. I’ve enjoyed it but there are disadvantages – close in living, homeowners associations, traffic and tourists, and a lack of space / seclusion. One of the options I’m considering for a real estate investment is to rent out my current house and buy another place I’ll enjoy more. My current place fits perfect as a long term rental property based on the research I’ve done so far, and a new house will give me the opportunity to do some things I can’t do in a covenant based community.
One of the things I’d really like to do is go solar for electric power. In the community I current live, I can’t install panels on the roof as it’s a violation of rules and regulations, and I don’t have a large enough back yard to install the more advanced stand-alone photovoltaic tracking systems. A new house on a plot of land would allow me to do so. I also think it would make for a really cool technology experiment in green living.
So I’m looking at good property I can build on and existing homes on nice chunks of acreage (1-10 acres would be nice). As far as solar goes, it’s actually pretty easy to do, there are various different types of residential system to choose from, each providing different levels of energy output. The more energy out, the higher the cost and space requirements. Initial investments range from 10K to 50K, with a return that should pay for the investment over a period of 10-15 years. After that you’re making money off it. Plus, heck, going green feels good, and hopefully drops your carbon footprint into negative digits.
If you’re curious here are some links to companies and sites that provide information on the technology and systems. It’s a basic list at this point, but I’ll be updating it with more information as I continue the research.
General Information -
Provider Directories –
Florida Solar Energy Industry Association
National Solar Provider Directory
Example Systems and Cost -
Government Programs –
State of Florida $20K installation rebate – This program has been so popular the initial budget was met, there’s now a waiting list to receive it.
Federal Solar Tax Credit – Enacted by Bush 2005, and extended recently through 2008, a 30% tax credit on the purchase of solar voltaic systems.
